Static Shock: Missing in Action
by FullMetal Alchemistress
Summary: Richie goes into a coma and Static wants revenge. Three years later, Static, Hot-Streak, and some civilians are still MIA. Victoria seeks out the help of Gear, who happens to be her best friend Jason's dad, to help her find them, including her own dad.
1. Chapter 1

**Yeah, blah blah, shouldn't be starting another one, blah…**

**I wanted to. Deal with it. I've almost got the entire thing written out. R&R please.**

"_It's been three years today since one of Detroit's personal heroes disappeared—_"

Victoria turned the television off in a hurry and placed the remote back on the windowsill. She didn't want to hear that story again. The one full of so many holes and lies it was almost literally Swiss cheese.

"Hey! I was watching that," a voice muttered groggily from the bed next to her. The man in the bed ran a hand through his blond hair and rubbed his eyes before sitting up.

"It was nothing important, dad," a boy across from Virginia replied. "Besides, you were out like a light. S'not like you were actually watching it."

"Jason," the man sighed. "Shouldn't you be getting home? It's almost seven."

"Jason's coming home with me tonight, Mr. Foley," Victoria told him.

"Mom's working late," Jason explained, standing up and stretching. "Anyways, get some sleep." He turned to Victoria, who unfolded herself from the chair she was in, and waited for her by the door to his father's room.

"Jay," his father called, "be careful walking home. It's getting dark. Don't forget I'm coming home tomorrow morning."

"Sure. I wouldn't forget." They waved and started home. "You know, it's weird."

"What is?" Victoria asked.

"It's been four years since I last spoke to my dad, and now that he's finally woken up from his coma it's like nothing's changed."

"Well, it's been over four months," she muttered. "I'm just glad he's out of ICU."

Jason held the door to the hospital open for her and glanced at her. She held up a hand allowing yellow and white sparks to fly from her fingers, looking around to make sure Jason was the only one to see the light show.

"This isn't exactly heart-monitor friendly."

"Isn't there a separate heart wing?" Jason mused.

"I don't want to take any chances."

"True."

Victoria shoved her hands in her pockets and slipped into a daze. The words of the news anchor echoed in her head. _It's been three years today. It's been three years today. _That day wasn't clear. She was only 14 and had been kept away from the news. Everyone around her was instructed to keep quiet. Her mother was supposed to tell her. But she never did. Rather, she never got the chance.

Jason sighed and pulled on Victoria's hood, jerking back to reality, and off the busy road.

"Watch it, will ya?" he scolded.

"Hey, Tori," someone called as they entered her grandfather's house.

"Hey, grandpa. Where's mama?" Victoria asked, leaving Jason by the door, removing his shoes and jacket.

"Your mother's not going to be home until tomorrow night. She has a meeting in the morning a few hours away and figured it was easier to just stay the night," he explained. "So it's just you and me tonight."

She smiled sheepishly. "Uh, yeah, about that." He rolled his eyes and turned back to the stove. "Jason's mom is working late tonight. You know the med bills still need to be…" she whispered quickly and quietly.

"It's fine. It's still good that Richie is okay." Victoria turned to find Jason. "It'll be done in a few minutes so don't go far."

"Kay." She let the door swing shut behind her and sighed, looking up toward a picture of her father. "_It's been three years today_…" the words echoed.

"Victoria," Jason called.

"Right," she muttered to herself, "let's go upstairs."

Victoria left the door to her room open so she could hear when dinner was ready. She flopped down onto the bed while Jason took his usual seat on the desk chair. Her grandfather's house was her second home. She lived there when her mother was away. At least, that's how the last four years had gone…

She had taken her dad's old room, leaving it the way he had left it when he had moved out.

She looked over at Jason. He resembled his father just as much as she resembled hers. He had his dad's blond hair and pale skin while she got her dad's dark skin and black hair, which she kept smooth, wavy, and long.

"So," Jason started conversationally, holding a picture frame. "Were you and your grandfather supposed to do anything special today?"

"No," she snapped. "Because he's not dead." He picked up a broken electronic dog she had gotten when she was eight and pulled it apart. She watched with curious eyes as he held his handover the pile of broken circuit boards and bolts. Like magic, the pile floated and magnetically pulled together to form a plastic puppet which he paraded around the room with small twitches of his fingers.

Yup, this was her best friend. Jason Foley the technopath; with the powers to turn mechanical toys into puppets…

"V, come on—" he started after a pause.

"Mom's gone on business, Auntie is God-knows-where, and Grandpa is acting like today is any other day."

"Victoria, it was Hot-Streak and Static's fault—"

"No!" She covered her ears in an attempt to block him out. He had no idea what he was talking about.

"A lot of people died that day—"

"Jay," Victoria snapped. "No gravestone means he's not dead."

"Fine, fine," he held his hands up in defeat. "Just…talk to someone, okay? All that anger can lead to bad things."

She laughed. "You think I'll want revenge? On who?"

"Hot-Streak. Static." He shrugged.

"Not likely," she said flatly. "Let's go eat. I'll talk to grandpa later."

Victoria waved to Jason as he walked away from her house.

"Grandpa?" she called. She found him in the living room. "Can we talk?"

"Sure." He switched off the television and propelled them into silence. "What about."

"Today…" she thought it would be easy to talk about it after so long, but it was still hard. The words caught in her throat and she feared she would begin to cry.

"I know," he whispered.

"When Hot-Streak and Static fought…" she took a slow breath and sat on the floor. "Was dad really…"

"I don't know," he whispered regretfully. "I really don't know." He pulled her onto the couch next to him and pulled her into a hug.

"Static and Hot-Streak weren't the only ones to go missing," she reminded him. "Lots of people were never found." She paused, then angrily snarled, "Someone needs to find whoever did this and—"

"Tori, did anyone tell you what they were fighting over?" he cut her off.

"What?" she pulled away to look at her grandfather quizzically. "No…mom just said it was something terribly stupid."

"Stupid," he agreed. "Static was trying to get revenge."

"For what?"

"Hot-Streak was the one who took down Gear…temporarily."

"Wasn't that the same…time…" After four years she was putting two-and-two together. "No way," she said flatly. "No way is Jason's dad…"

Her grandfather said nothing, but glanced at the clock.

"No way," she laughed agitatedly. "Why didn't he tell me?!"

"I think you should go to bed, Tori. You can ask him tomorrow. Though I don't think it was ever his place to tell you." Though they both know it wasn't a suggestion but an order.

But it didn't matter. She was in a daze now, going through the motions without even realizing. Before she knew it, she was waking up to her alarm clock the next morning to get ready for school.


	2. Chapter 2

**Please review? Tell me what you think!!**

"Be careful on your way," Victoria's grandfather called from the kitchen. "I'm sorry I can't take you today."

"No, it's fine. I'm gonna meet Jason along the way. Bye."

Brooding, she kicked anything in her way in the sidewalk. Acorns, rocks, leaves, branches.

How could he keep something like that from her? Wasn't she supposed to be his best friend? Wasn't that something you let your friend know?

She slowed down her pace and frowned. Maybe she didn't mean that much to him. Maybe they weren't as good of friends as she initially thought. Maybe he just thought of her as something to pass the time.

She stopped walking and looked at her watch.

"Crap," she growled, starting to run. "I'm gonna be late. I can_not _get another detention. Mom will _kill _me!"

Turning into an alley she decided to take a short cut. But she had turned down the wrong one.

"Too high to climb," she decided, sizing up the 8-foot brick wall.

She turned around and froze.

"Well look who it is," he laughed, coming out of the shadows.

"You," she gasped. "You can't be here! Static put you in jail! Years ago!"

He ignored her and took a step towards her, pushing her up against the wall of the building.

"Let go!" she cried, looking around frantically for someway to get out of the alley. Her eyes landed on an outdoor outlet behind her knees and her fingers twitched towards the two openings. She inched down, trying to get closer to it.

"I'm assuming you already know who I am," Ebon sneered. "Then you know who I'm after."

"No, I _don't _know who you're after!" she growled, jamming her index finger into the outlet. Her body filled with the electric current, which ran into Ebon, sending him flying backward a few feet. She stuck her ring finger into the last remaining outlet and raised her free hand toward Ebon. "Leave. Me. Alone."

She blasted him out of the alley and then raced toward the school as fast as she could. The front school yard was empty and she glanced behind her to make sure Ebon wasn't following her.

She didn't quite understand what was going on, but she knew one thing.

She had to find Gear.

Victoria fidgeted through the day, obtaining merely a strict warning for her tardy when she mentioned that her grandfather had been unable to drive her and she had to run to school, which left her breathless and panting during her explanation.

When the final bell of the day blared through the halls, she was out of the school and waiting by the entrance for Jason.

"V!" he called, waving and smiling.

"You," she snarled.

"What?" He took a step back like she'd hit him, but she grabbed his collar and dragged him away from the school towards his house.

"Where are we going?" he asked, aggravated.

"Why didn't you tell me your dad was…" she whispered angrily.

"I thought it was kind of obvious!" he whispered back just as fiercely, not even pretending to not know what she was referring to. "You know? This." He pulled out his phone and threw it at the wall. He picked up the pieces and, using his powers, put it back together, showing her the lit LCD screen to prove it worked.

"Yeah, well, it would have been nice for you to have made sure we were on the same page," she muttered. "Anyways," she continued walking, "I need to talk to your dad about something."

"Did you talk to your—"

"This isn't something I can talk to my grandpa about," she muttered sadly.

"Father figure," he murmured to himself, nodding like he knew what she was going to talk to him about. She rolled her eyes.

Victoria kept silent for the rest of the walk, stepping aside so he could unlock the door, though it was already unlocked—neither of them were used to there being someone for him to come home to.

"Dad," Jason called. "You here?"

"Where else would I be?" he chuckled. "I'm in here."

They followed his voice to the kitchen. Richie was sitting at the kitchen table, working on a mechanical…thing…that could only be Back-Pack.

"Poor thing got trashed. This is going to take days to repair," he sighed.

"If you talk to Victoria, I'll help you later." Richie looked as his son and raised his eyebrows. "Technopath," he said simply.

Richie nodded and looked at Victoria, who had taken a seat across from him.

"So what's up?" he asked, leaning back over his work.

"Well," Victoria started slowly. "Last night I was talking to my grandfather and he told me what the fight was about between Hot-Streak and Static that led to the disappearance of everyone around, including Hot-Streak and Static."

Richie's eyes, widening, shot up to her in surprise. "What? I never heard about any of that! People are missing?" Both looked at Jason, who was glaring at Victoria from the fridge.

"Well, we were _going _to tell you eventually…"

"You'll find I'm not one for secrets. Anyways, from what I know—because I was also kept out of the loop for a while—Static and Hot-Streak were going at it hard. Hot-Streak had taken down a whole building and killed tons of people. Then, when everyone thought it was over, no one could find Static _or _Hot-Streak. Tons of citizens were missing, too," Victoria explained.

"Has anyone who was missing been seen?" Richie asked carefully.

Victoria shook her head. "My dad is still missing."

"So what is it you need?"

"Well, last night I put it together and figured out that you're Gear," she said, throwing a glare at Jason. "No thanks to anyone else."

"One and only."

"Well that's what Static and Hot-Streak were fighting over."

"Static was out for revenge," Richie guessed. Jason, who had remained silent through the entire thing suddenly sat down next to his dad and took Back-Pack from him.

"Yup," Jason muttered, leaning over Back-Pack to get a closer look inside.

"Ah," he groaned, running his hands trough his short blond hair. "Static, what did you _do_? Man, that's not like him…"

"And that's not all," Victoria said darkly. "On my way to school I ran into someone I haven't heard from in years. When I think about it, it's gotta be at least three years since I've seen him. Ebon."


	3. Chapter 3

**HAHAHA It's been so long since I've opened this file that I hadn't realized I had typed up 2 and a half more chapters, but hadn't posted them XD We had a snow day today and I got bored. Static Shock was on Disney XD and it gt me thinking about where I wanted my story to go.**

**If you're good I'll post more ;D**

**Chapter 3**

Jason's eyes widened and Richie looked immediately alarmed.

"You ran into _Ebon_?!" Richie exclaimed. "And he let you go?!"

"I'm not exactly empty handed, you know," Victoria snapped, offended.

"That's not—"

"Done," Jason stated, pushing Back-Pack toward his father. "You just need to load up any programs. You do have back-up files, right?"

"Don't insult me." A smile flew across his lips. "But they aren't here," he thought out loud, examining Jason's work. "We'll need to stop by…"

"What are you thinking?" Jason asked flatly. "Hopefully nothing. Dad, you just got out of the hospital from a four-year coma—"

"Yes, but I've been awake for well over six months. This is something that needs to be taken care of."

"I thought you weren't even talking to Static? Weren't you guys flying solo before?"

Richie looked at the ceiling, deep in thought. "I think so. I can't quite remember. But the fact remains that he's missing and I owe it to him to find him." Richie turned to Jason. "Is Rubberband Man still around?"

"Adam strictly works alone," Victoria told him sadly. "Though he rarely works at all."

Richie suddenly stood up, taking Back-Pack with him as he headed for the door. "Let's go," he commanded. "Lock the door behind you, Jay."

"Where are we going, Mr. F?" Victoria asked, catching up to his quick pace.

"First, we need to fix Back-Pack. He'll be able to sense any metahumans." They were silent for a few minutes until they came upon the destroyed section of town where the dilapidated old gas station sat. Richie stopped walking and looked around. Jason and Victoria stepped up beside him.

"This is all that's left of that fight," Victoria murmured, running her fingers across a charred piece of wood.

"The city is still collecting money to rebuild it," Jason added.

Richie looked around silently before heading into the gas station.

"Wow…" Jason murmured, inspecting all the tech and gear left on the table tops that as coated in dust.

"I can't believe it," Richie muttered, looking through boxes before he pulled out two CDs and a computer chip.

"What?" Victoria prompted, rubbing dust off a small box until the black and yellow lines shone through.

"Static just left all this stuff lying around for anyone—"

"I don't think he planned on disappearing," Victoria murmured.

Richie put the chip into a cavity on Back-Pack and it sprang to life. He popped in the two CDs and within seconds, Back-Pack was good as new.

"Alright, he's fixed. What now?" Jason asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket and rocking on his heals.

"Now," Richie said, "we stage a rescue mission."

"You know where they are?!" Victoria asked with sudden excitement. "You know where my dad is?!"

"I might know of—" But Richie was cut short by Victoria's cell phone which, when she saw the number, she did not hesitate to answer.

"Mom?" Victoria asked hesitantly. "Yeah, I'm with Jason…no, I didn't get detention." She rolled her eyes. "If you don't believe me I can let you talk to him."

Richie and Jason exchanged confused expressions.

"I'll be home—" she looked at her watch, "—in a few hours. Jason and I are working on a project…It's called Project Rescue. We have to create game characters and using the…Alright, bye."

Jason shook his head.

Victoria chuckled darkly as she slipped her phone back into her pocket. "Works every time. Just mention video games and mom buys whatever it is you're trying to pass."

The three of them walked in silence, trying to appear stealthy, as they approached Richie's location. Back-Pack began to beep quietly and Richie smiled.

"Definitely metahumans in there." He turned Back-Pack's beeping off and turned to the two teenagers. "I'm probably being extremely stupid and rash right now by bringing you both here—"

"One," Jason started, "we're both 17. Two, we're both metahumans."

"Three," Victoria added, "my dad's in there somewhere and I want him back!"

Jason grabbed Victoria's arm before she could run away. "Don't," he hissed. "Wait for my dad to tell us a plan or something."

Richie nodded. "This is how it'll go…"

Victoria sighed and climbed into the vent unwillingly. Neither Richie nor Jason liked her "use the front door" idea, so she was stuck to following them into a vent that led them straight to the center of the building.

Every time Richie touched the metal of the vent, he got shocked. "Must be getting close," Richie whispered to them.

"Uh.." Victoria looked down at her hand to see tiny yellowish white sparks fly between her fingers. She balled her hand up into a fist and continued down the vent. "I hate metal," she grumbled under her breath.

"Now," Richie whispered finally, turning around so that a metal grate was in between him and Jason and Victoria. "If Back-Pack is right, there's an immense amount of electricity—"

"Right below us, four feet to the right," Victoria murmured, trying to see through the grate.

"Right," Richie said, furrowing his eyebrows. "Now we just need to get the grate off…Back-Pack."

Back-Pack crawled off Richie's shoulders and quickly unscrewed the grate. As soon as Back-Pack was out of the way, Victoria ripped the grate away and jumped down to the floor below.

"Victoria!" Jason whispered loudly. But both Richie and Jason jumped down after her. Their eyes followed her wide ones to see a large circle of electricity swirling up and brushing the ceiling. A single figure stood in the center, washed out by the light the electricity created, but they all knew who it was.

Victoria was the first to respond, tears streaking her cheeks. "Dad!" she called the same time Richie yelled "Static!" They exchanged looks and Richie looked surprised.

"Static is your dad?" Jason exclaimed.

"Don't start," Victoria snapped. "You didn't tell me who your dad was! Besides…" She held up a sparkling hand. "It was kind of obvious," she mocked.

"I was kidding," Jason muttered truing to his father, who hadn't moved.

"I can't believe they caught Static!" Richie whispered in horror, staring at the large ball of light that swirled angrily around his best friend.

"You're surprised? What, you thought he was _dead_?!" Victoria nearly shouted at him.

"Don't misunderstand," Richie defended, looking around for someone way to stop the electric currents. "Dead means someone got in a lucky shot or caught him off guard. Captured means someone was powerful enough to contain him for three years straight."

"What is that thing?" Victoria asked, staring at the long armatures protruding from the ground creating the electric field.

"It's a stasis field," Jason muttered, looking for the computer that was generating it. A small podium sat off to the side nestled in the corner. That was it. The surface was covered in buttons and screens.

"But where's Hot-Streak?" Victoria asked. "And the missing civilians."

"There are no missing civilians," a voice sneered behind them.

"Hot-Streak," Richie growled.

"Man," Hot-Streak laughed. "And here I thought I had permanently damaged you."

"Not. Quite." Richie reached into his pocket and wrapped his hand around a new device. Something he'd been developing before he was thrown out of commission. "Maybe you should finish what you started," he taunted, gripping the device harder, holding down a button.

Hot-Streak scowled, his heads lighting up.

"You're like Static, right? Electricity?" Richie whispered hurriedly to Victoria.

"Well, kind of—"

"Get back against the wall or you'll short out," his whispered just as Hot-Streak launched himself at Richie. As quick as he could—and barely quick enough what with his recovering reflexes—Richie flung the orb at Hot-Streak. It slammed into his shoulder and burst, sending extremely cold water through the air.

**Anyone have any predictions as to what could happen next?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yeah, sorry I haven't updated in so long. A lot has gone on. My car broke down, I get it back 2 days later, but then I was involved in a car accident the next day, totaling my car. Then my best friend starts fooling around with the guy I had been interested in behind my back, and when I confront her about it, she DENIES any feelings for him, but then an hour later changes her relationship status on FaceBook to in a relationship with him. Then I had winterguard championships is South Carolina and now I'm on Spring Break. Well, I was. My one goal of Spring Break was to ask tis guy to prom. But he got a girlfriend the day I was away at championships. My best friend and the ex-crush-guy she's dating knew, but wanted to see me get rejected so they didn't tell me. Great friends I have, right?**

**ANYWAYS…**

**Chapter 4**

Victoria's arms flew up in front of her and she dove behind the podium, barely avoiding the stream of water. All she could hear after that was sizzling as Hot-Streak's body quickly cooled off while simultaneously heating up the water.

She could also hear one other thing. The podium in front of her hadn't been so lucky. It had been doused with water and was now crackling.

"Victoria, don't!" Jason attempted from across the room to dive toward her. But it was too late. She had reached out to mash some buttons, but as soon as she touched the podium her body when rigid and a strangled cry escaped her lips.

"Her body is absorbing the current too quickly," Richie screamed over Victoria and the loud crackles and pops the electricity was creating.

"We have to shut it off!" Jason decided, heading for the podium, but Richie jerked him back.

Victoria clamped her mouth shut. She knew what was going on. She had asked her father if he could ever get electrocuted. He responded with a laugh, explaining how his body would just absorb the electricity.

"_But what if you absorb too much?_"she had questioned.

"_I would just have to burn off more electricity then I was absorbing until I was able to let go of whatever was throwing off electricity,_" he had told her.

So now, she did the same thing.

She sucked in air through clenched teeth before throwing out all the electricity she had. Time seemed to go on forever and Victoria could feel her energy deplete drastically. If the electricity around her didn't kill her, she would definitely die trying to burn it off, or so she thought.

"She's overflowing the machine," Richie said, his voice coating with notes of amazement, wonder, and worry.

"No more," Victoria muttered. She stopped using energy—any more and she wouldn't survive. She swayed for a second before sliding down to the ground. "Ugh, my head." She felt Jason come to her side immediately.

"Victoria!" a voice cried.

"I'm okay," she said, trying to see straight and stay awake.

"Tori!" someone said again.

She strained to look up and whoever was hovering over her.

"Trev," she sighed, too tired to wonder how her cousin had found her. "Is Uncle Adam here, too?"

"Are you guys always so stupid?! Just busting into the place alone!"

"Came through the vent."

"She gonna be okay?" She heard Trevor ask someone. She remembered that Jason was there. Maybe he was taking to Jason.

"Yeah," she heard someone reply; she was unable to decipher one voice from another. "She was almost overloaded. She'll be fine."

There was a pause and Jason thought Victoria had fallen asleep.

"Let's get her out of her, now, before Ebon comes home. They have her dad. He's…" Strong arms lifted her off the ground.

The sun shone through the window and lit Victoria's face. She scrunched her face up and rolled over, pulling the blankets up over her face. The blankets felt odd and foreign. The events from the day before filtered through the post-sleep delirium and hit her like a brick wall and she bolted upright and looked around. She was in her aunt's old bedroom at her grandfather's house.

There were thousands of ways this could go down. He could find her. He could have left. He could be at her house. Ebon could have come while she was unconscious and taken him back.

Carefully, she stood up and padded across the room, to the door. Quietly, she swung the door open and paused to listen. She didn't _hear _anyone. Though the chance she was alone was slim. Especially after everything that had happened. The chance that it was all a dream was even slimmer.

She snuck down the hall and down the stairs, wincing at every creak the floorboards made. She paused at the door to the kitchen when she heard hushed voices.

"…I still need help with it before I fail. And knowing her, she's fail me in a heartbeat," someone muttered. Trevor. Talking about how bad he was at school, no doubt.

"Well, get it done early and ask for help." Uncle Adam was here too. Victoria wondered in the short silence that followed who else was there.

You know how when you're trying to be absolutely quiet and stealthy you have to cough or sneeze? Well, feeling like something bad would happen if she just stood there, she pushed on the door and walked into the kitchen.

Trevor, Adam, and Victoria's grandpa all stared back at her.

"Feeling better?" her grandfather asked after a slight pause.

"Yeah," she replied quietly.

"That was pretty stupid," Trevor started, leaning back in his chair. "You should have waited until you had backup. What were—"

"Trevor. Enough," Adam snapped.

"I know," Victoria said quietly. "But I had to. We had to act quick. What if Ebon decided to do something to dad?"

"Why would he, after three years, all of a sudden decide to do something to him?" her grandfather asked, clearly concerned.

"Think about it—Hot-Streak put Gear in a coma, but Gear was released from the hospital. He knew that once Gear found out what had happened he would know it was all Ebon and would come after him. Ebon _knew _Gear was the only one that could do any kind of damage to him."

"She's right," Adam agreed, crossing his arms and leaning back against the counter. "I mean, once Ebon knew there was a threat, he'd do anything to take it out. But since it was Gear, what way to torture him than to torture Static?"

"Exactly!"

"Still stupid," Trevor mumbled.

"Incredibly," their grandfather agreed.

"Where's mom?" Victoria asked, afraid to ask about her father. She had no idea how he was, or even if they got him out. The last thing she remembered about him was seeing his silhouette in the stasis field.

"She's at the hospital," her grandfather responded carefully. "Virgil's okay."

"He was seriously shorted out," Trevor stated.

"How shorted out?" Victoria asked flatly.

"He's regained consciousness a few times," Adam said uneasily. "But, from what they can tell, he's having short bits of amnesia. He'll remember something one minute, then forget it the next."

"Can I…" she started to ask if she could go see him, but all three were shaking their heads.

"Your mother's the only one allowed in right now. We've been switching back and forth. I'm supposed to be getting sleep but I just can't," her grandfather admitted.

She nodded slowly.

"Sometimes….sometimes I really hate that he's Static. Sometimes I hate that he has powers."

"Tori," Adam sighed. "Your dad is one of the few people who chose to do the right things with their powers."

"He's right. Virgil only used his powers the wrong way once. That was when I found out who Static really was."

Victoria sat in silence, letting that sink in.

"We should get going. Gotta pick up Sharon," Adam said quietly. Trevor stood up.

"We'll keep you updated."

"Appreciated."

**Predictions for future?**


	5. Chapter 5

**WOOOT LONGEST BREAK EVUR. I was flipping through old notebooks looking for my college freshman shit since I'm graduating this summer and going into my fourth year of college at an art school and I found one labeled "Fanfic stuff" from high school and the outline for this chapter was in it SO I WROTE IT UP FOR YOU GUYS HAVE FUN.**

**Chapter 5**

It was almost a week later that Virgil woke up and stayed awake. He had some temporary amnesia, nothing major, but the doctors promised it would vanish in a while. His arm, which had previously been broken and healed wrong, had to be re-broken and set.

Victoria had gotten grounded, while Jason got a…less severe punishment.

"Seriously, Jay, it's not fair. I find my MIA father, help save his butt, and I get grounded for it? What's that say about my parent's relationship?"

Jason's laugh crackled through the phone. "Have you been in to see him yet?"

"No, I'm going in a little bit today," she said. "But mom's been there everyday. I think she even took time off work using her vacation days."

"Aw, no vacation this year?"

"Jason, we have more important things to worry about than vacation, which is like, months away."

"True, true."

"Victoria! Let's go!" her mother called up the stairs.

"Gotta go," she said before quickly hanging up without waiting for a response.

The first half of the car ride was absolutely silent. It had been that way in the last few days. After she had been grounded, Victoria had simply refused to talk to her mother at all. She refused to explain her actions, simply telling her that it should have been obvious why she did it.

"Victoria," her mother started softly. "I know you're mad at me."

"Figure that out all on your own?" she muttered sarcastically, watching the buildings pass slowly. They were almost there. She could see the top of the building now. Her stomach knotted suddenly. What if he was awake? What would she say? She hadn't seen him in years, would he recognize her? Of course he'd recognize his own daughter.

Her mother sighed and tightened her grip on the steering wheel. "You have to understand how stupid that was. You could have seriously been hurt."

"I know," she said softly.

"If your uncle and cousin hadn't shown up, I don't want to think what would have happened to you, Richie, and Jason."

"We would have been fine."

"You nearly overloaded, from what I heard," she said stiffly. "Can you even use your powers anymore?"

Victoria held up a hand and showed her mother the small yellow sparks dancing around her fingertips. "Barely. They'll come back."

"I don't know about that, Victoria."

"Dad's always came back."

"You got your powers differently from your father. It's not the same."

"It's not too different from the way _his _work. I'll just jam my finger in a light socket. I'll be good to go."

"You had better not," she snapped, pulling into the parking lot.

Victoria turned and looked at her mother for the first time in days. She noticed the bags under her eyes, the tired look on her face. For the first time she realized the effect this was having on her. She had been so selfish she hadn't thought of how her mother was dealing with this. Not once did she see the relief and the worry and the pain she had gone through with the return of her missing husband.

"I'm sorry, mom," Victoria mumbled, opening the door and getting out of the car. Her mother walked around the front of the car and pulled her daughter in tightly.

"Let's go see your father," she murmured. "He's been asking about you for a while."

Victoria followed her mother silently through the sterile halls. They passed the ICU hallway and her eyebrows pulled together in confusion, a little hope fluttering in her heart.

"Dad's not in the ICU?" she questioned her mother as she pushed the up button on the elevator.

"No," she responded. "Not anymore. He was moved this morning."

"Is that why you waited so long to bring me to see him?" Victoria asked quietly.

Her mother shot her a very confused look as the elevator door shut in front of them. "Baby, of course it is," she explained, pulling her daughter to her side. "Did you think there was another reason?"

Maybe, Victoria thought to herself. There could have been plenty of reasons to keep her from seeing her father.

"Don't misunderstand," she murmured to her. "I don't think I could ever thank you enough for bringing him home to me—to us. But, Victoria, I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost you, too." She buried her face in her daughter's hair. "You were all I had left."

They stayed like that until the elevator announced their arrival to the appropriate floor. Victoria paused in the doorway her mother had disappeared into shortly after they'd gotten off the elevator. There was an IV stand and a monitor blocking her view of the head of the bed, but she could see most of her father perfectly. The paleness of his muscular arms. The cast that adorned one. The slight static-cling relationship he had with the light sheet covering his lower half.

She held her breath, not knowing what to expect.

"I thought you were bringing Vick with you." His voice was so familiar to her heart, but its deep, raspy nature was incredibly foreign.

One foot, then another.

"I did," he mother murmured, eyes turning up to meet Victoria's.

She watched as Virgil's face changed, the corners of his lips turning upward as his eyes landed on her. He was sitting up, leaning against a pile of pillows. "You've gotten big, Victoria." She stood there, not sure whether she was going to cry or run to him. "C'mere."

Slowly, she made her way to the other side of his bed where her mother was standing. Virgil reached out his good hand to her, which she took, fully not expecting him to pull her to him so harshly. Suddenly his arms were around her, crushing her, his cast a rock on her back.

"Da—"

"That was so, so, _so _stupid, Victoria," he murmured into her hair. He pulled back and took her chin in his hand gently, forcing her eyes to meet his. "But I'm so incredibly proud of you." His smile was genuine.

"And that's why I'm still grounded?" she muttered before she could stop herself.

Virgil laughed and hugged her one more time before letting her go. "No, that's for the stupid part of this whole mess, Vickie—you're not too old to be called Vickie, still, are you?"

"Never, Dad," she smiled.

"How old are you now anyways? Fifteen?" he pondered, eyes cast up to the ceiling, brows furrowed.

"Sixteen."

"Seventeen in a month and a half," he mother added in with a smirk, wrapping an arm around their daughter. "She's growing up so fast."

"I'll say—feels like just yesterday she had just become a teenager," Virgil grumbled.

She couldn't hold back the questions that had been nagging her for years. Here he was, able to answer them. And here was the moment. "Dad, what happened?"

"Victoria," her mother began disapprovingly.

Virgil held up his good hand and took a breath. "It's alright." He looked at Victoria. "Take a seat. It's a long story."

Victoria's fingers fumbled for the edge of the chair behind her, not wanting to take her eyes off her father, afraid he would disappear again. Virgil shifted and waited for his small family to get settled before he dove into it.

**Last chapter was updated on 4/5/10…WAY TO WAIT 3 YEARS! I've been doing the whole college thing since then. Majoring in Game Development. Got to play Portal and Slenderman for homework. Fun shit.**


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